Buildings are tumbling down at Bristol-Myers Squibb's pharmaceutical plant in East Syracuse as part of a major redo of the site that once produced 70 percent of the nation's penicillin supply .

Bristol announced in 2010 that it would demolish 60 of the 118 buildings on its 47-acre campus on Thompson Road to re-make the site to reflect its new role as a research and development facility rather than a production plant.

It began knocking down buildings a year ago and has really ramped up the demolitions this year.

The company declined to provide an update of the work pending a public unveiling that it plans to hold this summer. But Frank Stirpe, director of codes enforcement for the village, said the company has been issued permits to demolish 25 buildings so far.

The demolition work is highly visible to motorists driving by the plant.

All of the buildings coming down are obsolete. Many have been unused since New Jersey-based Bristol began phasing out penicillin production at the plant in 2004. Some of the buildings date back to the 1940s.

In their place, the company plans to install landscaping and build fitness trails to create a park-like campus more typical of the kind of biotech research center that the facility has become.

View full sizeAn aerial view of what the Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical plant in East Syracuse will look like after the demolition of nearly half the site's buildings. Landscaping and walking trails will replace demolished buildings.Bristol-Myers Squibb

Rather than produce large quantities of drugs, the plant makes small amounts of drugs for clinical trials and researches ways to mass-produce biopharmaceuticals -- medicines derived from plant or animal cells.

The changes have East Syracuse officials worried about the financial impact on the village. Bristol is the village's biggest taxpayer. It pays $354,000 in village property taxes annually -- 14 percent of the village's $2.48 million property tax levy.

In addition, the company pays $550,000 in taxes to the town of DeWitt and Onondaga County and $590,000 in taxes to the East Syracuse-Minoa School District.

East Syracuse Mayor Danny Liedka said he does not know what impact the demolitions will have on the village. However, he said he expects the company to seek a reduction in its tax assessment -- currently $26 million -- once the work is completed.